Quote of the Week – an amazing and encouraging statement from EPA's Scott Pruitt

In his first year as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt has already transformed the agency in many ways. He spoke exclusively to The Daily Signal before addressing attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s annual Reagan Dinner. An edited transcript of the interview is below.

Rob Bluey: You gave a speech at CPAC last year where you were just at the beginning of your tenure at the Environmental Protection Agency, and you outlined some of the things that you wanted to do. Here we are a year later, you’ve repealed, taken back, 22 regulations at a savings at $1 billion, a significant contribution to the U.S. economy, as President Donald Trump talked about in his speech. What does that mean?

Scott Pruitt: Busy year. And it was great to be at CPAC about two weeks after having been sworn in last year. And I talked last year about the future ain’t what it used to be, that Yogi Berra quote that I cited about the change that was gonna take place at the agency and I think we’ve been about that change the last year. Focusing on rule of law, restoring process and order, making sure that we engage in cooperative federalism as we engage in regulation.

But the key to me is that weaponization of the agency that took place in the Obama administration, where the agency was used to pick winners and losers. Those days are over.

82 thoughts on “Quote of the Week – an amazing and encouraging statement from EPA's Scott Pruitt”

Unlikely. So much damage to the internal momentum, staff, and infrastructure of the agency, would take 20 to 30 years to get back into that mode. 8 years of Trump, and all the radicals will be long gone. Then, they can engage in reverse legal precedent setting to stop future legal precedents of opposing views.

We can’t count on eight years of Trump. And the way Progressives are acting out in their enclaves is positively scary – the way they’re going here in Oregon, they might well make this state unlivable – and the thought of them regaining national power leaves me dry at the mouth.

It’s likely Trump will be a lame duck after the 2018 mid-terms, as Democrats regain effective control of Congress, thanks to the continuing anti-Trump propaganda emanating from the MSM and leftist interests, including most of the high tech sector. When Google and Facebook are shaping and censoring news, it’s hard for conservative ideas to get air time.

I submit that Obama’s weaponization of the EPA, IRS, DOJ, and other government agencies was unprecedented.
With these past examples of criminality, perhaps oversight will begin to mean something more than a short stop at a scenic viewpoint on a highway trip.

Unless Congress can pass some solid bureaucratic reforms to put into federal law, then the Progressive-Marxists will be bolder than ever at weaponizing the EPA come the next Marxist that becomes President.

The weaponization of Federal agencies under OlBlame-0 is merely indication that the Federal government is far too powerful. The constitutional Republic has devolved into a mendacious form of demonacracy. It gets its power from the income tax and the lack of term limits on ‘professional’ politicians who become multi-millionaires while ‘serving’ the public. It will never be fixed until after the debt implosion. USA citizens are not rational thinkers. CAGW just an exemplar.

People instinctively understand that the old media were complicit in that weaponization. The didn’t investigate it or report it. When their hand is forced they still don’t investigate but instead seek to disparage those that are the key accusers or who have investigated and report honestly.

Secretary Pruitt I really like how you think and are acting on America’s behalf. I am hoping this YouTube video makes it back to you and President Trump. The CO2 in the combusted coal exhaust can be transformed into useful-saleable products and many full time jobs.
We can improve America’s Environment and it’s Economy.

If this can be done economically, there’s no need for government to do anything to encourage it.
If you are demanding government intervention, it can only mean that you already know that none of these things are worth doing.

Wasteful, expensive & unnecessary to “capture” carbon in any way, because plants already do it. But we already have “clean coal” without the scrubbers, precipitators, and catalytic-conversion crap — fluidized-bed combustion.

Carbon dioxide capture is a waste of time and money being pushed by rent seeking republicans like energy sec Rick Perry. It has little effect on temp but is vital plant food. Pruitt should be pursuing an end to the EPA endangerment finding on Co2. The social cost of carbon is net positive!

Here in San Diego the Audoban Society has publicly stated that if a recreational area of Mission Bay is not returned to natural habitat they will sue in federal court, most likely with a third party. After reading the interview I do believe I hear exploding feathers coming from the Threat Society.

Probably from Mexico, there are several colonies on Yucatan. As a matter of fact there were native flamingoes (Phoenicopterus copei) in the Great Basin salt lakes until the indians arrived. Then they, er…, sort of disappeared.

I love the way trolls assume that even the tiniest roll back of their regulations is the equivalent to having no regulations.
Then again, the evidence that trolls are capable of rational thought in the first place is weak at best.

“But the key to me is that weaponization of the agency that took place in the Obama administration, where the agency was used to pick winners and losers. Those days are over.”
The reason politicians like “to pick winners and losers” is because they can easily obtain bribes from the winners to finance their re-election campaigns (“and a bit more for the family”). This is the way of politics all over the world, from Africa to the Arab world to Asia to Europe to the Americas – and the socialists are best at it.

Absolutely correct, Allan. Socialists are masters of the “bait and switch”, promising to solve society’s ills on the one hand without telling that they will take all of your money, property and freedoms on the other. And, that takes a socialist government, an unarmed civilian population and a population that has forgotten the lessons of history regarding socialism and communism, Communism is pure evil and socialism is only a step or two away.

Exactly, how else do these long time congressman become multi-millionaires with a $174,000 salary.
If there was ever a watchdog to put a spotlight on this scam, perhaps things might change. But alas the Congress is unwilling to police themselves. This is my main argument for term limits.

Term limits would just mean they groom their successors sooner.
The watchdogs are the thoughtful voters. Aware of this, so-called progressives and others prone to corruption seek to inflate the voting pool at every opportunity, to swamp thoughtful votes with thoughtless ones.

Remember that Congressmen/Congresswomen are exempt from insider trading rules. That’s a huge benefit. I understand the rationale when that law was passed; I’m hoping no one realized how unethical Congresspeople would abuse that law – and others.
My apologies in advance for the tautology (“unethical” Congresspeople).

Yes. It seems like a lot of stuff has been baked-in by laws that allow the trouble makers to sue and get what they want, irrespective of who owns the White House. They have been playing the long game for many decades, and there are many lawyers who know how to play the system.
I like Pruitt a lot, but I still doubt he can bring balance to the farce in one term, never mind two. The best policy may still be to shrink the agency as much as possible in the time allowed.

The air traffic controls went on strike and as a result were in violation of their contracts.
That is how Reagan was able to fire them.
The EPA workers are unfortunately not doing the same, so Trump has no grounds to fire them. If he were to do so, the courts would order re-in-statement with compensation.

ristvan –
I was surprised at you impatience. It is from your comments over the years that I’ve come to understand how things work in our legal system. In fact, I think it was one of your comments when I first learned about “sue and settle.” I think it was also one of your comments that made me understand that the SCOTUS ruling on Endangerment Finding was not about the science, but on the question of did the EPA have the legal right to make such a finding.
Don’t you suppose the changing of the Science Advisory Committees, and the emphasis on building a traceable background of information, are all part of getting their ducks in a row to show the SCOTUS (and a change to the Endangerment Finding will ultimately end up there) that all the necessary actions required by law and regulation were followed to the letter, therefore they had the legal right change the finding.
I’m thinking it will the third year of the Trump administration before the
endangerment finding is changed by the EPA.

The thing is that we were never in any danger from anthropogenic CO2. That alone will ultimately settle the business, but God help us until the crippling narrative is exposed, as it inevitably will be
=======================.

God Bless President Donald Trump!
– appoints Scott Pruitt to head the EPA.
– withdraws the USA from the Paris Climate Accord.
These 2 key and most excellent decisions by President Trump have yielded real positive results for our economy, our Country, and the restoration of the Rule of Law. Results matter to this President and these are ‘the gifts that just keep on giving’! Listening to the Scott Pruitt interview linked above, it is apparent that he is a ‘no bullshit’ man on a mission, determined to downsize and restructure the EPA while delivering positive results for the United States of America citizens. He looks, sounds, and acts like the right man for the job.

Remember, this is after 1 year and there’s minimum 3 more to go with this administration. If you’re worried about the next administration make up start doing something about it but enjoy while you can.

Definitely going in the right direction but things this rotten take time to fix. There’s just so many troops from the Green Blob entrenched in that agency and its contractors, etc., etc. Not just the Climate Squad but everything, particularly the Endangered Species Racket.
Taking on that bogus ‘CO2 endangerment’ thing needs to happen. Should be easy to do if actual science was involved. I assume there must be some political factors still to ramp up yet.

I’m confused.
I watched the clip explaining the “Sidel Process”, and at first thought it was just another joke from Obama. Then I realized it can’t be, he is kinda gone.
So they are saying they want to grow food, in order to mush it up and use it for fertilizer to grow food, and drive tractors to grow food? Which they will then mush up to produce more fertilizer. And jobs.
What? As I said, if we still had the previous administration, I would roll around on the floor for a while until I finished laughing. But they are kinda gone. So what is this?

The first time I saw one of these “fast drawn” info-cartoons I thought it was cute.
After several of them, and also someone doing fast-draw on a big sheet of paper (in person), I now view them as boring and a waste of my time. I like information presented in a more content dense manner.
There is a Sidel Group [Food and Beverage Packaging, Manufacturing, System Engineering].
Don’t know if this is the same idea or not.
Sleeping is more productive than watching “fast-drawn” things.

“missed this from 5 years ago”
No, you missed this from your 2012 link:“At one point the Interior Ministry mandated that a certain percentage of teachers be armed but because, over time, fewer teachers carried weapons, for a number of reasons, including philosophical objections, and due to increased terror attacks, private guards were mandated at all schools,” he said.

The claim was“I read in an Australian newspaper that Israeli teachers must have concealed carry guns.”
That is quite untrue – well, OK, maybe true that he read it. This 2012 doc claims that an unspecified percentage of teachers were supposed to carry guns, but that didn’t work out, so they went for guards instead.

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